Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

I built mine from scratch out of pine. First thing I did when I bought a cheap Black and Decker miter saw at an outlet mall near Valdosta. When it died I bought a nice DeWalt compound miter saw and it was a world of difference.

 

Last night was brats on my old Ducane gas grill. I only use it for brats, charring peppers for pealing, and stuff like that. The igniters are getting weak and the tubes all have some cracks. It is a nice thing to have when wanting to grill somethings quickly, so I might spring for the replacement parts. About $100.

Tonight is clam linguini.

And I bought Napa cabbage, scallions and daikon radish for starting some kimchi tomorrow. The other night we had some take-out from a place that was mostly Korean for my SIL's birthday and the kimchi was not very good so it inspired me to make my own again. I have the correct Korean red pepper somewhere. And where did I put those Ball one quart canning jars?

 

I thought we had a lot of pulled pork left over, but I guess that my son got into it. I wanted to make enchiladas with it tonight. I told my wife to either bring home take-out from one of the local places we like or to go to Publix and get a rotisserie chicken and some salad greens for a salad.

Spent most of the afternoon prepping kimchi. I had a four pound head of Napa cabbage and a one pound daikon radish so I made a lot. First I brine the cabbage for two hours, triple rinse, let it sit in a colander for about thirty minutes, and then squeeze out any excess moisture. I think that I over did the last part. When you pack the kimchi you should get enough moisture out to just cover the veggies as they get ready to ferment. In one of my containers no matter how hard I packed it with my muddling tool it never released enough water, so I added some. I hope that it works.

 

Tonight will be pork chops with a fig, cream and balsamic vinegar sauce. We have some ears of corn that need to be used up as well.

Tomorrow I will smoke two young chickens. One will be eaten as pieces with lemon and rosemary baked small potatoes and the other will be shredded and used for enchiladas. I found La Preferida green medium enchilada sauce at Sav-A-Lot (decent sauce for one from a can instead of made from scratch) and Hatch mild green enchilada sauce at Publix (good chilies, but not enough heat). But I did buy two cans of Hatch hot green chilies to liven things up.

And Go Gators!

 

Smoking chickens and it is weird. Usually a young chicken takes about 4 hours at 250 F to smoke, but these are five hours in and still not done. But they are close.

 

Last night was leftover chicken enchiladas with green sauce and then assorted snacks and wine at a friend's house with a pool. Lovely time and delightful people.

Tonight is pan fried pork chops, stir fried broccoli, and rice.

 

I have run this many times:

 

Last night was Italian sausage and arugula over orecchiette with fennel seeds, lemon zest, and garlic.

Tonight is pan fried mahi with a butter, garlic, lemon and flat leaf parsley sauce and an Asian slaw.

Added in edit: Also making Jasmati rice with datil peppers.

 

Rambling about mahi and fishing and my dad.

One day I went out on a private charter out of Palm Beach with my family to fish while on summer vacation in Florida. My dad had some sort of business relationship with the owner of the boat so all he needed to pay was a generous tip.

We caught a lot of mahi that day, but back then they called it dolphin. But soon after everybody thought that dolphins were Flipper when they are actually bottle nosed porpoise. Hence they started calling this fish by its Hawaiian name.

They are so beautiful when first taken out of the water, but the colors fade quickly. They do still taste really well when fresh even after the colors fade.

We also caught a lot of large barracuda. That I will not eat due to ciguatera.

I think the last time I fished with my dad was on a small boat out of Puerto Vallarta and we caught a lot of fish including a lot of barracuda. The kids from the town took everything we caught. I think it might have been 1974.

My dad liked to fish. According to my mom they spent their honeymoon at a fish camp way up north. LOL.

When I was about seven I went fishing with my dad on a small lake in northern Wisconsin. He was looking to catch a muskie and the boat always went to where he though he had a chance. He got skunked and I caught a number of good fish for dinner.

Good times.

I miss that guy.